Roofing shingle



Oct. 22, 1929.

W. A. HARRIS ROOFING SHINGLE Filed Feb. 27. 1925 I [amen/i01 '5 diya Patented Oct. 22, 1929 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE WILLIAM A. HARRIS, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO THE FLINTKOTE COMPANY, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, A CORPORATION OF MASSACHUSETTS ROOFING SHINGLE Applicatim filed February 1925. Serial No. 11,965.

This invention has relation to flexible prepared roofing shingles such as produced from a flexible sheet comprising a fibrous foundation of rag or asbestos felt saturated With asphalt or other waterproof bituminous composition, coated with a layer of relatively high melting point asphalt e. g. blown asphalt, and surfaced with a layer of partially embedded crushed slate or other grit. The subject matter of this application includes features generic to the subject matter of my copending application Serial No. 11,964 of even date, in which application such features are broadly claimed.

An object of the present invention is to produce such shingles in a form by which a large area of roof surface may be covered by shingles requiring a minimum amount of material, by which the lower portions or corners of the shingles may be interlocked with laterally adjacent shingles in a low-er row, by which said shingles may be accurately placed and spaced apart on the roof or surface to be covered, by which such shingles may be produced without waste from the initial sheet of roofing material, and by which other advantages are obtained as will subsequently be pointed out. 7

On the accompanying drawings:

Figure 1 represents 110w the shingles may be cut or formed from a sheet of roofing material without waste.

Figure .2 represents one of the shingles.

Figure 3 represents'the appearance of the shingles when laid interlocked onthe roof.

Figure 4 illustrates one of the shingles with its lower interlocking end under folded or bent under the body portion thereof.

Figure 5 represents an edge View of such shingle with a similar scale.

Figure '6 represents the appearance of such shingles when laid and interlocked.

Figure 7 represents a portion of an edge View of such a shingle in which the underfolded portion is spaced slightly from thebody portion.

Figure 8 represents how such shingles appear when laid and interlocked.

\Vhile shingles embodying the present improvement may of course be placed or laid upon a newly built roof structure, they are of especial value in covering previously shingled roofs.

Each shingle, as shown in Figure 2, may be I considered as comprising an upper wide portion or half 1, and a narrower lower port-ion or half 2, each portion with the exception noted being approximately in the shape of a keystone and they are of equal length longitudinallyor lengthwise of the shingle.

Considered as a whole the shingle has strztight parallel upper and lower edges 3 am 4.

The upper portion has downwardly converging side edges 5 and the lower portion has also downwardly converging side edges 6, 6 which are respectively within and parallel to the side edges 5, 5. Midway between the upper and lower edges 3, 4 there are shoulders 7, 7 which lie in a transverse median line of the shingle and extend from the'upper ends of the side edges 6 6 to the lower ends of the side edges 5, 5, thus forming corners at the lower portion of the upper half 1, of the shingle. Projecting laterally from the lower corners of the lower portion 2 of the shingle there are tabs or projections 8, 8 and in the upper corners of the upper portion .1, there are recesses '9, 9, which are complemental in size and shape to the tabs 8. The outer or end edges of the tabs 8 may he perpendicular to the under edge 4, but preferably, as indicated at 10, they are;

parallel to the side edges 6 and 5 on the opposite sides of the shingle, the upper edges of the tabs .as indicated at 11 being preferably upwardlysloped relative to the edge 4.

In Figure 1, 1 have shown how these figures may be cut from a sheet of roofing material of the character hereinbefore described without waste. The sheet of the desired width is slit longitudinally into strips by a longitudinal cut indicated at aa so that each strip is of a width equal tothe desired length of the individual shingle. The shingles are cut transversely of the strips on lines indicated at b?) and 0- -0, the lines of severance forming the side edges of the shingles. The wider part of one shingle in a strip lies next the narrow portion of the succeeding shingle so that they are reversed as to position shown in Figure 1. That portion of a shingle which forms the tabs 8, 8 is roduced by cuttin the recesses 9, 9 in the adiacent shingles of t e strip. By this method of forming the strips there is no waste material. Of course it makes no difference whether the sheet is first slit and then transversely cut or vice versa, or whether the slitting and the transverse cutting are accomplished simultaneously.

The shingles are laid in overlapping rows upon the roof with the narrow portion of each shingle extending downwardly from the wider portion as shown in Figure 3. The first row of shingles is laid with the shingles spaced apart so that the distance between twoshingles at the reentrant corners formed by the shoulders 7 equal to ,the width of the .lower portion of the shingle measured from the reentrant corners formed by the lateral projections or tabs8. -When a row of shin--- gles has thus been laid and secured to the roof boards by nails or otherfastenings located above the shoulders 7 at points where they will be concealed by overlapping shingles,

then the second row of shingles is laid. This is accomplishedby inserting the tabs or projections 8 of the shingle under the side edges 6 of two adjacent shingles in the firstrow, and moving the shingle upwardly until the tabs 8 engage reentrant corners formed by the shoulders 7, or, in other words, until the edges 11 of the tabs engage the shoulders 7 The bird row of shingles is similarly laid, each shingle, of course, being similarly nailed.

When the roof is completely covered it will present the appearance of a series of hexagonal vertical panels. which are longer than they'are wide. In Figure 2 I-have indicated by dotted and hatched lines that portion of each shingle which is covered by laterally or longitudinally adjacent shingles. Assuming that the length of each shingle is twenty-one inches, that the width of the shingle at its transverse median line is sixteen inches, 100 square feet of roof surface may be covered by shingles havinga total area of approximately 175 square feet.

The shingles, of course, may be made wider if desired, and the angularity of the downvwardly converging side edges may be made more obtuse so as-to vary the shape of the hexagonal panels when the shingles are laid upon the roof.

In s'omeinstances I regard it as desirable for the purpose of increasing the thickness of the butt end of the shingle to fold or bend under the body portion thereof on atrans:

' verse line d-ol substantiallycoinciding .with' the upper edges 11 of the tabs or projections.

' 8, the folded underflapbei'ng indicated at 12 g in Figure 5. With this construction the tabs or projections lie in a plane below the plane of the body portion of the shingle, and they project beyond the ,side edges'fi of the lower maaaae previousl laid shihgles, as illustrated in Fighe folded under portions, however, I i may be slightly separated from the body portion of the shingle, as shown in-Figure 7, in.

ure 6.-

which eventthey may be slipped under the shoulders when-the shingles are laid as indicated in Figure 8.

From the foregoing description, it will be observed that after the shingles are laid, each shingle is secured .by nails which are concealed, and at its lower corners is interlocked with the shingles of the preceding course, and its upper end is overlapped by the shingles of the second row above it. Inasmuch as the as'phaltic shingles are flexible,- the laterally projecting tabs may easily be bent below the plane ofthe body of the shingle to lie beneath the. laterally adjacent shingles of the next lower row.

What I claim is:

1. A flexible roofin shingle comprising an upper portion with v ownwardly converging side edges, and a lower narrower portion of a length equal to that of the upper portion and having downwardly converging side edges,

and shoulders substantially midway between the upper and lower edges of said shingles extending laterally outward from the side edges of thelower portionto the side edges of the upper portion, the side edges of said lower portion being parallel and inwardly offset with respect to the respective side edges 0 tion, the lower corners of said lower portion having tabs projecting laterally from the side edges thereof, and shoulders substantially midway between the upper and lower edges of said shingles extending laterally outward from the side edges of the lower portion to the side edges of the upper portion, the lower ex- J tremity of said lower portion together with said tabs being bent. under the body portion thereof.

In testimony whereof I have afiixed my signature.

WILLIAM. A. HARRIS- 

